The national median home value is at an all time high as of June 2017 – now worth $200,400 – a 7.5% increase over last year’s numbers, according to a recent report from Zillow. What’s driving this increase? High demand and fewer homes on the market.
Seattle, Dallas and Las Vegas led the country with increases of median home value of 13%, 10.5% and 10% respectively. Seattle’s median home price is now $447,100.
There seems to be no sign of significant slowing in these rising home values though some metro areas, like the Bay Area, are cooling off a bit. “Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Zillow, said “…even if slowing, home values everywhere remain at or near peak levels, selection is limited, demand is high and competition is fierce.”
Foreign investment is helping to drive up home value all over the country. In fact, foreign investment is at a record high. Some $153B, a whooping increase of 49% over last year, purchased some some 284,455 properties by foreign nationals, according to the National Association of Realtors. Though China continued in the top slot for the fourth consecutive year with $31B foreign investment in U.S. housing markets, Canadians more than doubled their American housing market investments with $19B. Florida, California and Texas gleaned the lion’s share of those foreign market dollars with 22%, 12% and 12% respectively.
Gudell of Zillow offers a slight caveat concerning foreign investment in American housing markets however. “…uncertainty about immigration and international trade policies could lead to a slowdown…”
This same recently published Zillow study on median home values also took a look at median rents around the country. Findings indicate that median rents remain steady at $1,422./month nationally. Obviously, some metro areas such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento saw large increases while others, such as Pittsburgh (-4%), Houston (-3%), and 10 other cities, saw median rent decreases. Yet another statistic to pay attention to in this study relates to housing inventory levels…San Jose (-40%), Columbus (-33%) and San Diego (-33%) were hit the hardest with the most significant declines of houses available for sale.
